Lectures Series

Much research on new democracies has focused on their purported low democratic quality. But there has not yet emerged a consensus on what democratic quality means or how to measure it. This lecture puts forward a new conception of democratic quality that is rooted in the idea of democracy as popular rule. It then procedes to apply this concept to the ten new EU members from postcommunist Europe. Its surprising finding is that democratic quality is relatively high in these countries; citizens do have the means to control their rulers. The lecture concludes by speculating about the causes of this relative success.

See also his recent book "The Quality of Democracy in Eastern Europe", Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Social Inequality in Central and Eastern Europe: Its Character, Perception and Attitudinal Consequences for Democracy and the Market

Stephen Whitefield

University of Oxford

September 18, 2009 at 11AM, Gellner Room, Monument Building

Prof. Whitefield presented results from a EU-funded survey based project on social inequality. In particular he will address the character of social inequality in the region, the extent to which it is perceived to be excessive and the consequences of views of social inequality for support for democracy and the market.

A video of the lecture can be viewed here

You can download the lecture slides of the lecture Social Inequality in Eastern Europe

Can U.S. and European Democracy Support Respond to Democracy’s Global Challenges?

Thomas Carothers
Vice President for Studies
Carnegie Endownment for International Peace

March 26, 2009 at 13:30
CEU, Nádor u. 9, FT908

U.S. and European democracy support face multiple, daunting challenges–the problematic legacy of President Bush’s democracy promotion efforts, European disunity and uncertainty, new alternatives to democracy around the world, and the global economic crisis. How can the U.S. and Europe find a prodcutive, realistic way forward for democracy support in this context?

Economic and Political Culture in Inter-war Bulgaria

Markus Wien
Associate Professor
American University in Bulgaria

March 18, 2009 at 13:30
CEU, Nádor u. 9, FT508

Since Bulgaria achieved its independence from Ottoman rule in 1878, and even more so after the First World War, economic policies and, thus, also the economic political culture in the country were determined by two constant, but at the same time seemingly contradictory factors: the predominantly agrarian character of the national economy on the one hand and the political aim to integrate Bulgaria into the European economic networks. The tension between these two factors resulted in a steady growth of state influence on the Bulgarian economic development and, therefore, in a gradually increasing presence of elements in the economic policy which were driven by national-ideological as well as “political” considerations by the authoritarian regime under Tsar Boris III.. Consequently, the rule of the communists from 1944 onwards brought a centrally planned economy to an environment that was apparently already used to state dirigisme. The transformation of the Bulgarian society after 1989 therefore was – or is – a process uninfluenced by any form of pre-communist “bourgeois-capitalist” historical legacy.

Social and political inequalities in comparative perspective: An assessment of the impact of poverty and inequality on voter turnout

Aina Gallego
Researcher and Professor
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain

Friday, March 13, 2009 at 11:00
CEU, Nádor u. 9, FT 809

High levels of social inequality can be expected either to foster or to inhibit the political participation of the socially disadvantaged. The poor might try to use their numbers to achieve policies that benefit them in very unequal contexts. Alternatively, in such contexts they might feel an extreme powerlessness and refrain from participating in the political realm. The presentation aims to clarify if there is a positive, a negative or no relationship at all between the levels of social inequality in a country and the electoral participation of the disadvantaged.

After presenting the theoretical arguments that could lead to different scenarios, I will examine the gaps in the turnout rates of the people from different social groups with data from the European Social Survey and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Multilevel analysis will be used to test if there is a relationship between the levels of social and political inequality and the implications of the findings will be discussed.

Internet voting and e-democracy - A new voting channel for new voters? The case of Estonia

Fabian Breuer, European University Institute

Presentation (in pdf format)

November 13, 2008, 11:00-12:40

CEU, Nador u. 9, Budapest Facultly Tower 908

Abstract

In recent years, the use of ICTs for enhancing democratic processes and to facilitate deliberation and consultation between governments and citizens is constantly growing. In particular electronic voting and internet voting have gained considerable academic and political attention. The presentation will first of all put the new voting channel into the broader context of e-democracy and will briefly introduce the advantages, challenges and problems of internet voting. Secondly, Estonia and its internet voting experiences will be used as a case study. In the 2007 Estonian parliamentary elections, for the first time ever an electorate could vote over the internet in elections of a national parliament. This makes Estonia an excellent example to discuss the functioning, the opportunities and limitations of internet voting.

Biography

Fabian Breuer holds a PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Currently he works at the European Union Democracy Observatory at the Robert Schulman Centre for Advanced Studies in Florence. He is a research associate with the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin and a post-doc fellow at the European Foreign and Security Policy Studies programme. His field of expertise is European security and defence policy and he has a strong research interest in e-democracy and direct democracy. In this area he contributed amongst other things to several activities and reports of the Council of Europe on the Estonian internet voting experience.